Australian Network Punts to Prerecorded Programming after Hack

Brendan Howard/Shutterstock.com

Incident triggered by a malicious email that also affected Australia’s postal service.

A breach fueled by a malicious email disrupted the broadcaster’s 24-hour news channel in Australia, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

The email, sent by a hacker, contained a link to “ransomware” -- malware that can freeze a computer until the user pays up. In this situation, the message targeted the country’s postal service and then spread to ABC TV studios in Sydney and other major Australian organizations, including Telstra and Energy Australia, CSO reports.

Australia Post warned its customers about fake emails which claim that a "courier" has been unable to deliver a parcel to their address, according to local media.

The attack allegedly originated in Russia. 

Read the rest at ThreatWatch, Nextgov’s regularly updated index of cyber breaches.

And find out even more on “NG Cybersecurity,” our new iPhone app.

(Image via Brendan Howard/Shutterstock.com)